Phil wrote: ↑15 Apr 2020, 12:33
Just_a_fan wrote: ↑15 Apr 2020, 01:24
Indeed there is no known virus that is 100% fatal. SARS-CoV-2 demonstrably isn't.
Sometimes more dangerous as in a higher mortality rate isnt bad. If the host dies quicker, it cant spread as easily as people die before transmitting it. In this area, SARS-CoV-2 is very dangerous, as it is most infectious before the carrier shows symptoms and it takes a long time to develop acute and severe symptoms. Which is why it is spreading as it is.
As we continue to look at numbers today, if a country comes out of lockdown, you’ll only beginn to see the effect of that 2-4 weeks down the road.
It has taken this long (almost 4 weeks) to see our curve “flatten” after going into lockdown.
Even with "rebound" infections, the death toll will still be low as % of the population. SARS-CoV-2 isn't going to be killing many millions. We're at 127,000 worldwide, currently, which is a lot of people when viewed in isolation but it's not a "humanity dying out" situation.
What we've had is a modern day equivalent of the problems faced by indigenous peoples when faced by diseases brought by settlers from Europe back in the 16-19th Centuries. Except they were small populations with no real medicine and so easily were severely reduced/wiped out. Today we have a massive population and decent medicine which means deaths, whilst horrific when viewed in an individual way, are insignificant when viewed as the population as a whole. We're also fortunate that SAR-CoV-2 is a relatively mundane virus. Had it had the equivalent lethality of an Ebola or rabies, then we'd be staring disaster in the face.
As it is, SARS-CoV-2 is a great warning, a dry run if you will, for Governments and international responses to possible future "big things". It's to be hoped that lessons are learned and that we don't just go back to "business as usual". I know where my money is on that, sadly.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.